The BBC has beaten ITV in a bidding war for new Saturday night talent show The Voice in a deal thought to be worth about £25m over two years.

Seeing off an aggressive 11th hour move by Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, the BBC has snatched the rights to a UK version for BBC1.

It is thought that ITV initially decided not to bid due to concern over how Simon Cowell, who is responsible for two of its biggest shows in The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, might react to the acquisition of a rival talent format.

However, with Cowell scaling back his presence in the shows to focus on the US launch of The X Factor and the prospect of Cheryl Cole being lined up by the BBC as judge in a head-to-head ratings war with the UK version, ITV was galvanised into launching a bid for a back-up Saturday night format. It is thought that ITV bid in excess of £30m.

It is understood that the negotiations did not include any deal around judges. A number of names have been rumoured for judging roles including Cole and George Michael. In a description of the way the format must be made, it stipulates that the judges must all be "famous musicians".

The winner of The Voice will sign to Universal Music which hopes that the show, which has already proven a hit with US audiences on NBC, might finally break Cowell's monopoly on the talent-show-to-recording-star production line he has developed.

The BBC will also have to be careful not to breach its guidelines relating to exposure for commercial partners.

The corporation believes that it will be able to have a Universal artist as a judge – Cole is signed to the label – but one is likely to be the limit.

A BBC spokesman said: "Contractual details are still being worked and when it reaches the air next year, the show will be fully compliant, editorially justified and not unduly promotional. We have levels of safeguards in place to ensure this and any commercial aspects of the show will be in line with BBC policy."

The US version of the show, which has been described as "the world's hottest new TV music property", features Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as judges.

The show has been pitched as an antidote to other talent show by adopting a kindlier and less image-obsessed approach to its performers.

The Voice uses blind auditions in which the judges rate performers on their singing alone and give more constructive criticism than the acerbic put-downs that have become Cowell's trademark.

The deal for the UK show, which will not air until next year, was struck on Thursday between the BBC1 controller, Danny Cohen, and John de Mol. The Big Brother creator and Endemol co-founder also created The Voice and holds the rights to the format through his production business Talpa.

"The deal was not only focused on money, I think he wants the show on BBC1," said one source with knowledge of the situation. "He doesn't want to compete [on the same channel] as The X Factor. And the BBC also still has prestige factor."

By signing with the BBC, de Mol has forfeited significant potential revenues as the corporation cannot run premium phone-line votes, sell instant downloads or offer product placement to advertisers.

The attempt to differentiate The Voice from The X Factor was not lost on Cohen, who deliberately described it as a "big, exciting and warm-hearted series". De Mol described The Voice as a "new generation in its genre".

The BBC version of the show will be a co-production between Talpa and Wall to Wall, the UK independent producer that is part of Time Warner-owned Shed Media.

The arrival of The Voice will prompt a shuffle of the BBC's Saturday night schedule. The BBC's controller of entertainment, Mark Linsey, has hinted heavily that So You Think You Can Dance will be cancelled after poor ratings in its most recent series, which concluded last weekend.

It is understood that The Voice will not compete head to head with The X Factor and is most likely to launch in the first half of 2012.

Cohen has previously expressed a desire to secure a big entertainment show that can boost BBC1's schedule in the same way as Strictly Come Dancing does in the runup to Christmas.

There is also a political dimension to the likely scheduling of the show.

The BBC has previously come in for criticism for Strictly running head to head with The X Factor, denying ITV audience and therefore TV ad revenue.

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